After witnessing the harsh conditions faced by rural communities in Sabah 15 years ago, retired businessman Jimmy Lei chose to leave Australia and return to Malaysia to address these challenges.
Struck by the sight of school children braving the rain to return home, Lei set up the Starfish Malaysia Foundation - a foundation which focuses on empowering marginalised communities in Sabah and Sarawak.
The Starfish Malaysia Foundation is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023, an annual award by The Star and Yayasan Gamuda that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
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Struck by the sight of school children braving the rain to return home, Lei set up the Starfish Malaysia Foundation - a foundation which focuses on empowering marginalised communities in Sabah and Sarawak.
The Starfish Malaysia Foundation is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023, an annual award by The Star and Yayasan Gamuda that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
For more SGHA videos, visit https://www.sgha.com.my/
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:05 Hi there, my name is Jimmy Lee.
00:07 I'm from Starfish Malaysia Foundation.
00:10 We are the winner of the Star Golden Heart Awards 2023.
00:15 Jimmy Lee is a 70-year-old Sarawakian
00:18 who used to run a manufacturing business in Sydney, Australia.
00:23 He said his story with the Starfish Malaysia Foundation started
00:26 after he sold his business and visited Kota Marudu, Sabah in 2008.
00:32 One of the ones that we saw was when we visited some of the rural kampung.
00:38 Many hours drive from Kota Kinabalu up the hills.
00:43 And after visiting, on the way back, it was raining a bit.
00:48 And then there were these children walking home,
00:51 still in school uniform, primary school uniform.
00:54 I was asking them, "Why are they still walking home?"
00:57 At that time, it was like 3, 4 o'clock.
00:59 "Oh," I said, "Oh, they're actually still walking home
01:02 because the school is two or three hours walk away."
01:05 And it was raining and they were all wet.
01:07 So I said, "In that case, they wouldn't have lunch yet, haven't makan yet."
01:13 So they said, "Yeah, no, they won't have makan yet."
01:16 So that actually started me thinking,
01:19 "Well, if this is tough, how can we help to make it better for them?"
01:25 So I said, "What if we build a hostel next to the school?
01:29 Would they come and stay?"
01:30 So we explored.
01:31 And we also found out from this kampung,
01:33 90% of the children there don't even finish primary six.
01:39 And I said, "Well, how long has this been happening?"
01:41 "Oh, it has been happening for the last 50, 60, 70 years, always like that."
01:45 So if we do nothing, then it will continue for the next 50 years.
01:50 Two years later, the foundation was registered with a vision to educate,
01:55 elevate and empower marginalized communities in Sabah and Sarawak.
02:00 Since then, Starfish has been building and managing hostels
02:04 within the vicinity of nearby schools
02:06 so that the children have access to education.
02:10 Now we have five hostels running.
02:12 The first one I have mentioned is in Kampung Telantan,
02:15 Hostel Jasmine Telantan.
02:17 And this is a primary school hostel.
02:19 We have actually two primary school hostels.
02:21 The other one is Hostel Lily Mangkapon,
02:24 which is near the tip of Borneo,
02:26 the other tip, the Pitas tip.
02:28 And we have three other secondary school hostels.
02:31 One is Hostel Merigo, Solipodon,
02:34 which is halfway between Kota Marudu and Pitas.
02:38 And then we have two other secondary school hostels.
02:40 One is in Kudat, Hostel Rose Kudat.
02:43 And then the last one, the fifth one is Hostel Sunflower Sekuati.
02:48 Jimmy said that one of the challenges was convincing the parents
02:52 to let their children stay in the hostels.
02:54 At first it was quite hard because they were suspicious.
02:59 Why do you want to, you know, you want to make them work?
03:02 You, from where?
03:03 Not even from Sabah, you come and want to help
03:07 and then some more stay there, you know, feed the children,
03:11 take them to school, make sure they study,
03:13 make sure they mandi, everything, looking after them.
03:17 He said, "No, no, we just want to help to make sure that they can,
03:20 you know, go to school."
03:21 Quite a lot of success story, but there's one particular one
03:24 because it involved a boy that his name is Abron.
03:28 He came to our first hostel, Hostel Jasmine Telangtan.
03:32 He started enrolling and he's primary three.
03:35 So he was 10 years old.
03:36 But he was very small size, very malnutrished.
03:39 We found out that his attendance was about 35%
03:43 average school attendance.
03:45 So he's in former class of 37 students
03:49 and his position is number 37.
03:51 So he's the bottom of the class.
03:52 So when you look at him in the natural eyes,
03:55 not much help we can do with this one,
03:57 but to cut the long story short.
03:58 So when he started staying at our hostel,
04:01 his attendance go from 35% to 100%
04:05 because the hostel is literally a stone's throw away from the school.
04:09 So he doesn't miss school.
04:10 So, but just by that, his position improved.
04:15 By the time he finished primary six,
04:17 the last prize giving assembly,
04:20 he received an award from the headmaster
04:23 as the most improved student in the whole school.
04:27 And he also loved music, loved to sing,
04:29 and he has actually became the conductor
04:32 for the whole school choir.
04:34 Apart from improving the literacy level,
04:36 the foundation also boosts the community's income
04:39 through agriculture.
04:41 Jimmy added that Starfish plans to expand its agriculture efforts
04:45 to include commercial plantation and fish farming.
04:48 The hardest part, helping the rural community
04:52 is helping them to market the product.
04:54 If they plant 100 bananas,
04:56 who are they going to sell to?
04:57 They can't. It's so far away.
04:59 They don't have cars.
05:00 They don't have motorbikes.
05:02 How to bring 100 bunch of bananas to town?
05:04 So all these things, we have to help them there.
05:07 Jimmy considered that their mission is no easy task.
05:11 On challenging days, he too has contemplated giving up.
05:15 However, witnessing the children's growth and progress
05:18 motivates him and his team to persevere.
05:21 When we first started, we got students that did the SPM result,
05:29 2As, 3As.
05:31 If we got 4As in the SPM result, we were very happy already.
05:35 This year, in June, we got 10 SPM students.
05:38 2 got 8As, 1 got 8As and 1B+.
05:42 So almost 9As, you know.
05:44 Wow, we were over the moon.
05:46 All of them passed. No one failed in any subject.
05:48 Things like that keep us going.
05:50 We are the best!
05:52 (CHEERING)
05:55 (MUSIC ENDS)
05:57 (MUSIC ENDS)
05:59 (MUSIC ENDS)
06:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]